Having spent the weekend in Scotland, I picked up on an election story that I'd missed last week. Church leaders up here are cross with David Cameron for "hijacking" Easter for party political purposes.

"No matter what faiths we follow," wrote the Tory leader, "we can all draw strength from Christ's message of hope, of a new beginning and a promise of a new dawn."

I'm seeing a pattern here in Cameron's way with words. The other day, he appealed to Guardian readers to "overcome any prejudices you may have" and vote Tory.

In both cases, he's playing cleverly with the language of his audience - but in a way which hardly seems likely to win them over. (When his shadow home secretary thinks B&B owners should be able to turn away gay couples, are Guardian readers really likely to be impressed by talk of "prejudice" against Conservatism?)

Since I've now had a dig at the Tories two days running, I should put my cardlessness on the table: I'm no fan of the current government, and I've met Cameroons who impressed me with their understanding of the kind of grassroots, asset-based community development about which I'm passionate.

But I'm picking up an undertow of cynicism in Cameron's way of reaching out to people - which I can't imagine is the desired effect. I wonder what he thinks he's achieving with this stuff?

The Tories are in favour of marriage and want more of us to get hitched. At least, I assume that's why they're offering a tax break for married couples worth £150 a year.

But don't be rushing to the altar just yet. According to the Daily Mail, which doubtless spends more time thinking about these matters than I do, the average wedding today comes in at £20,273. By my calculations, that means that - under the Tory proposals - marriage doesn't start to pay off until after you've celebrated your 135th wedding anniversary.

Now that's what I call a long-term investment.